Saturday, October 22, 2011

RUGBY TEST MATCH: Belgium and Croatia Play Friendly

22.10.2011Croatia v Belgium in Charleroi (Friendly)

Venue: "Arc en Ciel", Place du Prieuré

Referee:

Preview

“Yesterday [Oct.15) in Zagreb was played trial match between two teams of candidates for croatian rugby side. In the team North were players from Zagreb RFC, Mladost RFC and Sisak RFC, and in the team South players from Nada RFC, Makarska rivijera RFC and Vilani Krasica RFC. South won 29-22.” Thanks to ‘Tarara’ at http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/forum2007/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3896

I am pleased to see the number of per ENC warm up games being played between teams outside their competition division. Last week it was Serbia v Hungary. I do hope this is a growing trend. Apart from the practical advantages to both sides, its a way of spreading the game and developing a wider interest in the sport. This venue in Belgium also sees a local rugby club given the opportunity of hosting a test match.

There was a time when Croatia was much stronger than Belgium in international rugby. Since the 90’s Belgium has certainly grown in leaps and bounds. Even without some of their France-based players I would expect Belgium to win this friendly test match.